Ukiah: Owner says Fircrest fire price tag could be $1M

The owners of Fircrest Apartments are deciding what their next steps are after fire raged through one of three buildings in the 50-unit complex, destroying eight apartments just after midnight Monday morning.

"We're discussing that now, and I'm getting consultants to look at it," apartment complex owner Robert Sherwood said Thursday of the fire-damaged building he co-owns with a partner. "Our plan is to rebuild at this point."

One of the problems with the way the fire spread, he said, was that no one's smoke alarm alerted them until the fire had breached the walls, because it spread from the outside in. Authorities believe a woman who lived at the complex set the fire intentionally, and continue to investigate.

The shingle-roofed building went up in 1979 and was finished in 1980, Sherwood said, and didn't have a sprinkler system because such systems weren't required at the time. Sherwood said he knows any new building will need to have one, and will also have to meet today's standards for earthquake safety, among other standards.

Sherwood, who has owned the apartments and other Ukiah properties since 1990, noted that most local apartments don't have sprinkler systems.

While Sherwood said it was premature to estimate a price tag on those improvements, he estimates it will cost more than $1 million. He's not worried, though, because his insurance covers the cost of upgrades for buildings built more than 10 years ago, he said.

The rent was what Sherwood called affordable at $895 for each approximately 900 square-foot unit, but wasn't formally considered low-income housing.

In the meantime, he's refunded and/or transferred the $1,000 deposits for those who lost their apartments and offered them three vacant units at the Fircrest Apartments, but one of the families didn't want to live there after the fire.

Edwiges Ruelas, whose family was in apartment No. 8 on the ground floor, woke up to the sounds of people yelling, saw the flames outside her front window and knew it was time to get out.

Her apartment was the only one of the eight destroyed units that didn't burn down, but she, her husband, brother and four children lost about half of their possessions. She said Sherwood offered her family one of his vacant units, but she was afraid to go back to the same apartment complex because of the trauma of the event.

As Sherwood and a local group rallied to find permanent housing for all eight displaced families, Sherwood said he was waiting for asbestos testing to determine how soon the fire-gutted building could come down so he can continue to make plans and move on.

Tiffany Revelle can be reached at udtr@ukiahdj.com, on Twitter @TiffanyRevelle or at 468-3523.